Friday, March 8, 2013

Eating Healthy on the Cheap: Mac & Cheese

Making "homemake" Mac & Cheese can actually be pretty cheap. Depending on what recipe you use. Sometimes, I just like to make a creamier Mac & Cheese than your orange powder stuff. But I don't use real cheese so this probably isn't healthy. Whatever.

Isn't it delicious looking?

The ingredients are pretty simple:

1/2 box of elbow macaroni. I get pasta for $1 or less a box. So .50 cents for the pasta portion.

1 can of Campbell's Condensed Cheddar Cheese sauce. I stock up on these when they are on sale. I drop probably about a $1 a can with sales/coupons.

2 tbsp. of Butter or Margarine or "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter". Assume $3 a pound and 32 tablespoons in a pound, that's .19 cents for the two tablespoons. I try to get butter product cheaper than this and stock up.

A splash of Half & Half or Fat-Free Half & Half. I think I end up using about 1/4 cup (4 tbsp). If you buy your half & half at BJ's - it's $2 for a quart or 64 tbsp. So .13 cents for the half & half.

You get probably about twice as much Mac & Cheese than a typical box of Kraft. This is more similar to the "Cheesier" varieties - like with the squeeze pouch ones. You end up dropping about $1.75 making this way instead of $2.50 on a box of the "fancy" stuff. You get about the same amount as 2 boxes - so instead of $5, you're dropping $1.75.